Goa needs more trains to increase tourist footfalls: Goyal

Union Railways Minister Piyush Goyal wants to make trains the engine of tourism growth in Goa.

Speaking at 'Vibrant Goa', an investment conclave near here on Saturday, Goyal also said that he was keen on expanding rail infrastructure in the coastal state, whose hilly terrain and densely populated coastal areas have rendered railway expansion projects, including track doubling, difficult in the past.

"Going forward, I would want more and more trains to come to Goa... Bringing tourists to the state from all parts of the country," Goyal said.

"Prime Minister (Narendra) Modi truly wishes to see Goa as an empowered state, as an engine that will drive the growth of the country in industrialisation and more particularly, the growth in tourism of the country for which Goa is most eminently suitable," the Union Minister for Trade and Commerce said.

Goyal also said that his ministry was keen on expanding rail infrastructure in Goa, for which he appealed for popular support.

"I must mention that the average CAPEX (capital expenditure) in the small state of Goa has been three times more than what it was before for expanding rail infrastructure in the state," Goyal said.

Incidentally, BJP MLA Alina Saldanha has been leading a movement against the doubling of railway tracks of South Western Railways, which pass through her constituency of Cortalim, claiming the expansion and doubling of rail tracks would lead to destruction of traditional homes of the villagers.

( With inputs from IANS )